Survivor 20, Episode 12: A Sinking Ship

You don’t know how happy I am that Danielle is gone. And no this is nothing personal (after all, she brought me a lot of traffic before this was all canceled by me changing URL). I’m saying this because I have to admit something. A few months ago, when I learned that the next season of Survivor was going to be another All-Stars with a Heroes Vs Villains theme, I died to know who was going to be on it, so I looked through the web and I found the list of of the contestants in a chart. But I soon realized that this chart was telling the booting order! Thankfully I saw only two: Sugar first and… Danielle winner!!! So yeah, I was pissed. On the one hand, technically nobody knows the winner in advance (I know there are some websites out there that do have booting orders, but they stop at final two or three for obvious reasons), but on the other hand, you never know. I grew more and more scared when all of the spoilers I had stumbled upon proved to be accurate: Tyson, Randy and Cirie being early boots, J.T. making a huge mistake that would cost him the game as well as most of the Heroes’ and another one that hasn’t technically happened yet, but seems like it will. Why are Survivor spoilers not as well marked as other shows is a mystery to me, but it’s really annoying, the only way not to be spoiled with Survivor is not to go to any forum about the show!?

In another terms, everything was pointing at Danielle being the winner, and I was pretty bummed (although I hid it in my reports) that I knew the winner in advance for what was the best season ever.

And, let’s admit it, I was also bummed that Danielle was that winner -even if she played well this season, she’s not a memorable player or anything.

So tonight I’m so relieved that she’s out for that one reason: not only she’s not the winner but I have no clue who it is going to be, and this is so exciting!!!

Apart from that, two boots this week (strange why they decided to do that) and another great episode despite the fact that we didn’t see much happening as they had to fit two tribal councils in one episode.

One final detail before we break down the episode among the characters as usual. That first immunity challenge surprised me in the fact that the women had hairy armpits! I think this is a Survivor first. I mean, every previous seasons -if I remember correctly- women were allowed to shave their armpits (and their legs) same thing for me with shaved heads (which was amusing as they were allowed to shave their heads but not their beards). I guess this is another way to show that this Survivor is more brutal than the other ones… 😉

Candice Woodcock voted out.
What can I say? She had it coming. She doesn’t deserve to be treated the way Colby treated her in that tribal council, after all she just played the game and tried to survive a few more days, but her jumping ship last week was going to do just that: let her survive a few more days as she had lost all of her allies and didn’t really gain new ones. Oh well…

Colby Donaldson

I can’t believe Colby. Last week he didn’t care about the immunity idol, this week is just leaves a challenge without second thoughts when he could have easily been the target of the vote that day. Colby is dumb, Colby can’t play, Colby can’t even win challenges anymore. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a useless player in an All-Star season. When the Villains even say they’ll keep him over Rupert because he can’t do anything, that’s telling a lot. The only thing I’m afraid of now is that he makes it to the end where he could get enough votes to win the whole thing which would be very embarrassing…

Danielle DiLorenzo voted out

She made one and only one mistake: letting her guard down at tribal, breaking down. From what I’ve heard Russell is such a brutal bully that it’s pretty hard to not break down if you’re weaker than him and under attack the way Danielle was -and make no mistake, this is why Russell went after Danielle and not Parvati. Parvati would have stood her ground against Russell intimidation tactics. And just like that, with one sentence “Parvati and I are closer than you think” she signed her demise (and unwittingly through a wrench in Parvati’s game). Before she uttered that sentence, I still think that Russell and Jerri would have voted against Rupert.

Jerri Manthey

Jerri is still playing a good game. She’s not making any waves, nor enemies. She’s the most under the radar of all right now. Surprisingly, she’s one of the remaining players that have the most chances to go to the end right now. Although if she wins, I’d be very disappointed because this season deserves to have a major player to win.

I’m still not sure why she voted with Russell and not with Sandra and Parvati against Danielle. I guess she got scared. I’m not sure what it entails for next episode as it’s obvious that Parvati and Sandra will go after Russell, but also, they’ll need Jerri to oust Russell, especially if he manipulates the two “Heroes” (I almost wrote “Bozos”) into aligning with him.

Parvati Shallow

See, this is why she is one of the best players ever. In the situation Russell had put her, most other players would have gotten scared and done what Russell would have told them to do (that’s pretty much what he did all along his season), but no, Parvati is not like that, she decided to double check the story Russell was selling to her and she stood her ground against him. That being said, Russell’s plan worked, Danielle got voted out, and now Parvati is seriously weakened, although I trust her to align herself with Sandra and Jerri more seriously than she’s had until that point (and maybe flirt a little bit with Colby who knows?). In any case, next week could be interesting…

Rupert Boneham
Last week I said that Rupert needed Sandra to actually start playing the game, but even if they’re not allied, this is true. He played a good game this week, fooling everyone -but Sandra obviously, and she was smart enought to shut her mouth- into believing he had an hidden immunity idol, voting against Candice and not wasting his vote, fighting until the end in the immunity challenge when everybody was quitting for food. No Rupert played a good game for two consecutive weeks -he just has to stop with the Hero posturing- and he surprisingly stands a good chance to win the game if he gets to the end. Except that I don’t think he stands a chance to get to the end.

Russell Hantz

I gotta admit it was fun to see Russell fooled by Rupert, especially after the unnecessary insults earlier in the episode. Once again, Russell is playing very well, seeing that he’s not as much in control of the game than he thought he was, he tries to destroy the Parvati/Danielle alliance, and seeing that he can’t, he starts aligning himself with his (gullible) enemies. But he still underestimates Sandra and even Parvati, and still doesn’t understand the social part of the game. When the whole jury hates you, you simply can’t win, that’s as simple as that.

Sandra Diaz-Twine

Once again, great game by Sandra this week. It was so refreshing to see someone finding the hidden immunity idol and keeping it hidden and secret, just like it used to be when that idol was not over-used. She managed to not get involved in any of the fights that happened this week, which is surprising from her. And even at Danielle’s ouster, I was surprised that she voted for Rupert, but it actually makes sense, she’s had it with Russell, and doesn’t want to alienate Parvati, as she understands that they now need each other to go further in this game.

Next Week:

I thought the showdown between Russell and Parvati (and Sandra) was going to be this week, but apparently it’s going to be next week. If Russell gets the guys to be with him (I still doubt he’ll totally succeed) and Parvati, Sandra and Jerri stick together that could lead to very interesting things. But can you believe an alliance between Russell and the remaining Heroes? Me neither… And Jerri, where does she stand exactly?

Next person voted out:
Hard to tell really. It looks like Russell’s time has come, but I wouldn’t bet too much money on it either.

Chances of winning:

-Colby: Much more than I would have thought last week.

-Jerri: Totally depends on whom she’ll be sitting next to at the final tribal.
-Parvati: Pretty good.
-Rupert: Not sure.
-Russell: None whatsoever.
-Sandra: Pretty good.

Personally, I really hope Parvati or Sandra win. They are the two that deserve it the more, and that are the most capable of doing so. If they do (well, if one of them do) we’ll be with a two times winner for the first time ever and I think that she (regardeless if this is Sandra or Parvati) will deserve to be called “best Survivor contestant ever”.